We recently worked with a freelance journalist for The People's Friend Magazine on a arranging an expert panel interview for our client BABTAC. The journalist required an expert piece on a tight deadline and our Account Director Victoria liaised with the journalist and the client to ensure that all of the work was delivered on time.
We were absolutely delighted when we received such lovely feedback from the journalist. Read the comments below:
"Victoria has been helping me arrange an interview with a member of your expert panel. I wanted to let you know that she has done an outstanding job, organising a prompt and informative interview with an excellent spokesperson. This is for the People’s Friend magazine and you could expect it to reach some 400,000 loyal readers. It was all done to a very tight deadline and I’m grateful!"
We love what we do here at apt, but receiving such lovely feedback always makes it more worthwhile!
We have been working with a number of membership organisations for many years now. As one of the ways to cement our commitment to membership marketing we became a Memberwise Recognised Supplier a few years ago, alongside regularly attending the annual conferences.
We recently gave a Membership Body Lobbying Masterclass at the MEMX Conference in April, alongside our client BABTAC (British Association of Beauty Therapy & Cosmetology). We lobbied on behalf of BABTAC as part of the Cosmetic Interventions review carried out by the Department for Health following the PPI scandal, which began back in 2012 although the final report was only released late in 2016.
We thought it would be a useful to tool to share our thoughts on things to consider before you start the lobbying process and the key challenges you may face...
Before you start, there are three questions that you need to ask yourself, your group or your wider membership. These are:
Does it directly impact your industry? If the answer is yes, then lobbying can or should be a part of your toolkit to combat any adverse effects. If it doesn’t then you need to assess how it might affect your industry or whether there is another organisation you can join forces with.
Is it in the best interest of your members? This is a key question to ask yourself - Will it benefit your members if you do lobby, or hurt them if you don’t?
Is it or should it be a priority? Some issues don’t seem to be a big deal, so once the situation has been assessed, you then need to identify and understand the potential short-term and long-term impact.
Once you have made the decision that you want to lobby, then there are an endless amount of tools at your disposal such as petitions & surveys, government consultations, self-regulation, PR & Media and even digital! The list really does go on...
There are however, many challenges organisations face when lobbying and although there are too many to list here in this blog there are three core issues which crop up time and time again:
OPPOSITION: If the issue is weighty enough and affects industries and organisations other than your own, then you will most certainly come up against opposition and you will likely contradict what they are saying. The key tactics here are to be sure of your argument and to understand your opposition’s point of view.
BUDGET: It is difficult to define a fixed budget for lobbying, there are too many factors involved! The best approach is to set out an end-goal, alongside smaller milestones which you can target as a business. This means you can focus on the initial milestone, attributing budget to achieving the first aspect.
SWIMMING AGAINST THE TIDE: To you, your argument may seem the only one that is relevant, but in many cases you will be the only organisation to hold that view. Many membership organisations shy away from swimming against the tide of opinion, but you shouldn’t be afraid to do so.
There are many external factors which can impact your business and sometimes you do have to sit back and watch them happen. So if you have the chance to change what’s happening and the outcome to benefit your industry, why not get in touch with us about lobbying?
We have experience in successfully contributing to public policy and public consultations and if the future of your business or your members’ businesses are being challenged we’d love to support you. If you’d like to chat to find out more, give us a call on 01242 250642. We’d be only too happy to discuss.
Here at apt, we are really proud to be an approved Memberwise Supplier and we have been for three years!
The Memberwise Network helps businesses like us who offer specific services to membership organisations access peer-driven help and support to enable us to better increase our value and growth to our clients.
Memberwise also host a nationwide membership best practice conference and this year, our Account Director, Victoria Petkovic-Short will be speaking at the conference alongside our client, the British Association of Beauty Therapy and Cosmetology, or BABTAC.
This year, the conference which is being held in April at the Park Plaza London Victoria Hotel, will include topics such as new member acquisition, existing member retention, optimising member engagement, enhancing member engagement and much more.
If you are looking for membership marketing help this year, we can provide tailored PR and marketing support. Call 01242 250692 to meet over coffee and discuss your requirements today.
Here at apt, we are extremely pleased to announce that we are the runner up in the Imagine’s Great Minds 2016 Campaign!
We have been awarded the runner up prize of £50,000 worth of media and content, after developing an exciting campaign idea for local tour operator, Compass Holidays. The ‘Tour de You’ idea was submitted into the competition back in July when the team pulled together their creative ideas over a good ol’ cuppa!
The competition was hosted by Imagine, the new creative studio from special interest content and platform company, Immediate Media Co. The brief was to design and create an innovative campaign for a client using Immediate’s portfolio of internationally famous brands. These include Radio Times, BBC Good Foodand Lonely Planet Traveller and many London based media agencies across the UK contributed to the competition. Specifically, the campaign needed to optimise the power of Immediate’s 18 million monthly UK audiences across special interest sectors as diverse as Food, Cycling, Weddings and Gardening.
The judges commented our exciting ‘Tour de You’ idea used great brand insight to perfectly match the passion areas of the Immediate brands to Compass Holidays’ breadth of offering. The campaign is set to focus on brands including BBC Countryfile, BBC Wildlife and Olive to focus on the range of specialist tours Compass offer.
We are all so pleased here at apt, especially as we were shortlisted with some big London based agencies! The full shortlist for Great Minds 2016 is as follows:
Airbnb entered by Starcom Mediavest
Compass Holidays entered by apt Marketing
Hellmann’s entered by Mindshare
Sainsbury’s entered by PHD UK
Thomas Cook entered by Dentsu Aegis Manchester
Thomson Long Haul entered by MediaCom
Our MD, Angie Petkovic says “We entered the competition back in July after having a brainstorming session over a cup of tea and the excitement could definitely be felt in the office. As we’re a small agency, words cannot express how proud I am of my team and the hard work they put into the brief has most certainly paid off! We’re all now really excited to get the ball rolling and to work with Imagine.”
New research from Royal Mail suggests that younger people enjoy receiving quirky and creative direct mail campaigns from brands. Especially in a world where a lot of communication is digital, younger people feel excited to receive a piece of mail that isn’t a bank statement or bill!
The research, titled The Life Stages of Mail, was conducted by Royal Mail’s MarketReach team and found that people aged 16-24, who have finished education and live at home were more likely to open envelopes than the 55+ age group.
Almost half of young consumers, who are referred to as ‘fledgings’, agreed that the quality of a piece of direct mail told them something about an organisation and 38% of ‘fledgings’ are more likely to look at a direct mail piece if it is printed on a high quality material. The research also showed that 32% of this age group trust direct mail campaigns more than information on the internet; as well as 18% finding it more memorable.
Of course, ‘fledgings’ are still more likely to respond through digital channels such as text messaging and social media, however this enables brands to also include elements such as a QR code or website link into a direct mail campaign.
So with that being said, here are some top tips on how to make sure your next direct mail campaign sticks out to ‘fledgings’:
Personalisation: Personalise your direct mail to ensure that it reaches the correct person and not their parents... (obvs!)
Tone of voice: Be sure that the tone and style of the copy is suited to the age group you are communicating your services to.
Call to action: Make sure that your direct mail piece has a clear and accessible call to action and guide them through the next steps.
Encourage sharing: Encourage your targets to share the direct mail piece with friends.
Make it easy to respond: Create a hashtag for consumers to interact with you or give clear instructions on how they can contact you using different devices.
There you have it, some top tips on how to ensure that your next direct mail campaign appeals to young consumers. If you are looking at your next direct mail campaign, we can help you with ideas, design and even print. Give us a call on 01242 250692 to get started!
New figures released from the Advertising Standards Authority have revealed the top ten most complained about adverts in 2015. These particular adverts have made the list due to the themes and issues offending and misleading some viewers.
Of course, the grounds on how an advert can be offensive is based solely on an individual’s opinion, Guy Parker Chief Executive at ASA said “Our Top 10 for 2015 will no doubt get people talking about whether the ads are or aren’t offensive, but there are important issues at stake here. Advertisers must take care not to cause serious or widespread offence.”
2015’s top ten most complained about adverts are:
Moneysupermarket.com Ltd
The advert consisting of Dave strutting his stuff the Pussycat Dolls received 1,513 complaints.
Booking.com BV
Booking.com prompted complaints of encouraging bad language by using the word ‘booking’ in the place of a swear word. This advert received 683 complaints.
Paypal UK Ltd
Their latest Christmas advert sparked 464 complaints after claims that it revealed the truth about Father Christmas after two children recognised that their parents hadn’t been shopping.
Booking.com BV
Booking.com used the same light hearted play on words with their advert of a man swimming back to his holiday resort which received 407 complaints.
Protein World Ltd
After advertising a woman in a bikini, Protein World Ltd was criticised for being offensive. This campaign had 380 complaints.
British Heart Foundation
The British Heart Foundation fell under scrutiny after their advert of a boy sat in classroom talking to his father who had died from a heart attack was released. This advert received 219 complaints.
Booking.com BV
This particular advert showing a couple meeting at a hotel, received 201 complaints after the same play on words was used.
Department of Health
The anti-smoking campaign from Public Health England showed a man smoking a cigarette that had blood and flesh inside it. This advert received 181 complaints.
Nicocigs Ltd
This advert received 145 after many people thought the advertising of e-cigarettes was appealing to children.
Omega Pharma Ltd
An advert for their XLS Medial slimming aid received 136 complaints after viewers felt that it an irresponsible approach to body images.
Parents in the UK took to Twitter after they received a pack of baby bodysuits from Tesco as a gift. As nice as it sounds, the set of F&F slogan clothing had two shocking spelling mistakes.
The 3 month old gift recipient’s parents decided to take to Twitter after discovering that two out of the five suits had spelling and grammar errors.
“Call me picky but I’d rather @Tesco spelled awesome correctly and didn’t miss out the apostrophe in Daddy’s” tweeted the child’s parents.
One bodysuit read “I was born awsome!” missing out the first E and the other read “Daddys Little Man” missing out the possessive apostrophe...Oops!
Tesco responded to the tweet and apologised “Sorry about this, we’ve made our supplier aware of this so it can be corrected for future stock.”
We are unsure of how this blunder actually happened; thank god it wasn’t a rude one!
It seems that popular clothing retailer House of Fraser has taken a turn for the worst, or better, we’re not sure yet, on their social media recently.
This week, they have been posting tweets using the hashtag #Emojinal, teamed up with, you guessed it, lots of emojis. With all of the hacking scams circling the internet, people quickly jumped to the assumption that the account was hacked; with some even saying it was wrongly hijacked by a work experience intern. However, it seems that this social media campaign is legit and an attempt at jumping on the emoji bandwagon. Tweets included:
Looks like our #Emojinal takeover has started! 😛😛😛😛😛😍😺😼🐶🐱🍏🍐🍊🍋🍌🍉
Even though it left their followers amused and confused, it seems that emoji lovers are in for an exciting treat. They launched the website www.emojinal.co.uk– a site that contains 12 movie-themed ‘emoji codes’ which upon cracking will send balloons flying and provide you with a 10% off code to use on the House of Fraser website. Sad to say, I’ve only managed to get one so far...
What are your thoughts on this campaign? Fun and current, or off-brand and confusing? We'd love to hear your thoughts, so get in touch with us on Twitter @apt_marketing or comment on this blog!
The first television advert was aired 60 years ago in black and white to 100,000 homes; the advert was for Gibbs SR toothpaste and was just a minute-long. Today adverts can be seen almost anywhere, you can’t even click onto a YouTube video without watching an advertisement first! With that being said, we thought it would be fitting to celebrate TV adverts 60th birthday with a list of our very own favourite adverts:
Ahh Bisto
The nation’s favourite gravy granules since 1908 have pursued a number of great TV advertising campaigns. The ‘Ahh! Bisto’ slogan is still instantly recognised and is always repeated when making the gravy to accompany that roast dinner!
R Whites Lemonade
Before writing this blog, the team were asked what their favourite adverts were and our MD Angie burst into song “I’m a secret lemonade drinker, R Whites Lemonade!” Composed by musician Ross McManus, the ‘I’m a secret lemonade drinker’ jingle will be memorable for anyone who listens to it!
It has to be, Heinz
We’ve all seen the advert where people are sitting down to enjoy their dinner with a mystery condiment bottle which it is immediately recognised as Heinz, because well it just has to be Heinz...enough said.
Fairy Liquid
The popular jingle “Hands that do dishes can feel as soft as your face with mild green fairy liquid” was sung by one our MD’s Angie good friends. Simple yet memorable, in fact we’re sure you’ve probably got it stuck it your head now?
Haribo
Here at apt, we all have a sweet tooth and love the Haribo adverts that depict adults with children’s voices. We’re sure that everyone can sing the jingle too ‘Kids and grown-ups love it so, the happy world of Haribo!’
Snickers
Snickers have produced some very interesting advertising campaigns with the help from a few celebrities including Mr T, Mr bean and Joan Collins. The slogan ‘Get some nuts’ and ‘Eat a snickers, ‘cos you’re not yourself when you’re hungry’ is sure to have made you giggle in the past!
Compare the Market / Meerkat
‘Compare the Market.com’ was the first memorable jingle from the insurance company and was sure to keep playing around in your head after listening to it on the radio or TV. In 2009, however, Compare the Market upped their game by introducing cheeky fluffy meerkats named Aleksander and Sergei. Their campaigns have featured everything from a Jacuzzi to meerkat adoption and more recently, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Cadburys Gorilla
Using the iconic purple in the background and a gorilla drumming to a legendary Phil Collins record, Cadbury’s managed to create a brilliant memorable advertising campaign. Cadbury’s are very creative with advertising campaigns and never cease to amaze us with their enjoyable and memorable TV adverts.
Levi’s Flat Eric
Levi’s jeans have done some iconic adverts in the past, but our favourite has to be one which involves a certain yellow character. Flat Eric, a humorous puppet built by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, featured in the Levi’s Sta-Preast One Crease Denim advert back in 1999. The song that Flat Eric is dancing to, called ‘Flat Beat’ by Mr Oizo took the pop charts by storm!
American Old Spice
We’ve saved the best for last... American Old Spice have created some extremely interesting adverts throughout the years; in fact we’re not even sure what some of them mean but we still think that they are great! We can’t explain why; we suggest you take a look at their YouTube page to see what we’re talking about!
Made from “the purest Swedish spring water”, Rekorderlig cider has been tantalising our taste buds with a plethora of flavours since 1999. The newest campaign, Silver Skaters, displays two male figure skaters performing an eccentric routine that is described as “beautifully Swedish”. That’s no coincidence...
During the advert Jarmo, the coach, sings to provide encouragement for the two skaters who are focusing on performing their routine flawlessly. With wonderfully wacky moves, the Swedish ice skaters look at ease on the ice until their final showstopper spectacle in which one of the pair is effortlessly flung across the ice in a moment of pure hilarity.
With Rekorderlig cider being mentioned by CoolBrands in 2014, the last few years have been majorly successful for this company; which has been accentuated by a large growth in market share, going up to 20%, in the UK as of July 2015.
Here at apt we think the campaign will help Rekorderlig become on par with other major competitors. We think the advert is refreshingly brilliant, with a zesty unorthodox essence; linking well to their many flavours of cider. Not only is the campaign clever because it subtly links Rekorderlig’s cider to the idea of being refreshingly different but it’s also bizarre enough to make you, the consumer, remember it.
